Sweet Home Chicago! How we love you so! Just when we were starting to get rolling on finishing Kenwood and beginning Hoyne, you feel the need to have a sense of humor…you are so funny.

This is my office window:

After a 45 minute site visit at Hoyne on Super Bowl Sunday, I was feeling pretty miserable when my (when I say “my”, I mean “Michael’s” – I can do that now that we’re engaged) beloved 1997 Buick got stuck in a snow drift on the street. Then, the GC that was touring the house came with a neighbor to help push me out (his bid is looking better and better…) – yayyy, we won. I was just starting to feel better when he looks at me and says “You’re lucky, I have a much bigger problem.” I get out of the car into snow that seems to be blowing in every direction only to be interrupted by huge gusts of wind that drift larger amounts of snow seemingly upwards, we walk across the street to observe his car which is also in a snow drift and his front wheel which is about 5 inches into a pot hole. I would have taken photos of this except that staying on my feet was the biggest accomplishment I could manage with any dignity. As we’re trying to figure out how *the+insert unnecessary expletive here* we are going to get him out of here, 3 more neighbors approach with shovels.

Chicago: a world class city with a midwestern personality.

A freezing, blowing blizzard and 5 different people who come running from their cozy homes into a blizzard to help…and help they did. For 3 hours, we shoveled, we tied (I tied since I’m a sailor – it was a mean bowline knot), we pushed, we even pulled (not successful)…and by the time we were done our faces were red, our scarves were covered in snot, and my potential GC was on his way to watch the game. As I left, those same people were already digging out another car. Incredible.

Then, the next day and 20 inches of snow later (literally), Michael and I spent an hour digging out our/my car again only to realize that we could not get out of our alley. So, I grabbed my shovel and left on foot for Kenwood:

That side fence is our only access to the house so I first had to shovel my way from the alley to the front door, then squeeze through the door like a cross between Spiderman and Batman (although, outside of my mind, it probably looked like Gollum) before I could attempt to get at the stairs. It only took another hour or so for the final reveal:

Who knew I was cut out for manual labor?

All in all for Kenwood, this delays the finishing of insulation a day – which delays drywall delivery a day – which delays flooring….

For Hoyne, this delays GC site visits possibly for the week since they have their own Kenwoods to deal with right now.